Can You Say "Conflict of Interest"? Not at the UN

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/03/can-you-say-conflict-of-interest-not-at-the-un/
Date Written:  2017-11-03
Publisher:  Counter Punch
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21623

Exposing the ways that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) allows oil giants to shape negotiations.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

the UNFCC negotiations are being compromised by the very oil giants that continue to create the climate crisis. These uber-powerful oil companies and groups like the World Coal Association and the US Business Roundtable are allowed into the negotiations at the UNFCCC as observers and are classified as equivalent to civil society NGO’s. They had access to all nations’ delegates, could host side events in the ‘civil society village’, feature their products in a ‘gallery’ and sponsor the conference.

The result has been a pitched battle at the UNFCCC gatherings between countries of the Global South and environmentalists on one side and developed counties like Canada on the other, over the issue of conflict of interest. The fight to demand that the UNFCCC establish rules and definitions regarding conflict of interest was led by Corporate Accountability International (CAI) which presented the secretariat with a petition of 500,000 names calling for the exclusion of fossil fuel companies.